Does parental education affect the impact of provision of health care on health status of children? - Evidence from India

The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of provision of health care facilities on the child health status taking into account the utilization of these available facilities. The study offers an insight into how parental education plays a significant role in explaining the slow progress in the health status of children. The results confirm that additional provision of health care facilities leads to significant increase in utilization of institutional delivery services and antenatal care which in turn improves the health status of a child. At the same time, we have observed that mere provision of more health care services will not solve the problem at the rate required to achieve acceptable levels of child health status. The model for utilization of health services reveals the fact that, schooling affects health seeking behavior among women which in turn results in greater utilization of institutional benefits in a region where the services are available. Thus female education must be enhanced to increase the utilization of antenatal care at a faster rate. Further, educated parents can manage child care practices in more efficient ways which offer them an additional edge among those who availed those facilities. To have a better utilization of available health care services and to raise the pace of reduction in child mortality rates government has to pay attention to increase education level of adults along with the expansion of health care centres.